A note on the width of sparse random graphs

Abstract

In this note, we consider the width of a supercritical random graph according to some commonly studied width measures. We give short, direct proofs of results of Lee, Lee and Oum, and of Perarnau and Serra, on the rank- and tree-width of the random graph $G(n,p)$ when $p= \frac{1+\epsilon}{n}$ for $\epsilon > 0$ constant. Our proofs avoid the use, as a black box, of a result of Benjamini, Kozma and Wormald on the expansion properties of the giant component in this regime, and so as a further benefit we obtain explicit bounds on the dependence of these results on $\epsilon$. Finally, we also consider the width of the random graph in the weakly supercritical regime, where $\epsilon = o(1)$ and $\epsilon^3n \to \infty$. In this regime, we determine, up to a constant multiplicative factor, the rank- and tree-width of $G(n,p)$ as a function of $n$ and $\epsilon$.